'Młodości mej stolica', or literary and theatrical Kraków in Tadeusz Kudliński’s recollections

Abstract

In my article I reconstructed the picture of literary and theatrical Cracow in the years 1918-1939, represented in the memorials 'Młodości mej stolica. Pamiętnik krakowianina z okresu między wojnami' (the extended edition, 1984), written by Tadeusz Kudliński. The author was an active participant of the cultural life of this city and a bystander of the great social and historical changes after Poland regained its independence in 1918. I tried to confront his subjective view of the important artistic events and processes in the interwar period with the objectivism of historical studies. Kudliński presented a complete and detailed image but, naturally, he paid more attention only to some facts, disregarding or briefly mentioning others. I wanted to understand the motivation behind thematic selection of the material. In the first part of this article, I analysed Kudliński’s „gallery of the portraits” of Cracovian writers and theatre people, paying special attention to the applied genre convention and description method. In the second part, I presented some individual elements of the literary Cracow panorama: professional organisation and institutionalisation of the literary life, the functioning of the publishing market, the development of local newspapers and periodicals, the financial situation of the writers and the meaning of tradition and avant-garde. In the third part, I reconstructed the image of the theatrical Cracow and the author’s views on the philosophy and aesthetics of the theatre. My main objective was to show the great documentary value of Kudliński’s memories - due to their factographic credibility and variety of content 'Młodości mej stolica' can be a valuable source of knowledge about the history of Cracow.